“All I wanted to do was make it through the day without scratching that man’s face,” Hodge said of his mace fights with The Rock.
Few Hollywood productions can rival a superhero movie in terms of sheer size, so stepping onto the set of any comic book film is bound to be intimidating. The only thing that could make the experience more nerve wracking? Stepping onto a set when you know you have to film a battle scene with Dwayne Johnson.
Aldis Hodge had to deal with exactly that when he starred as Hawkman alongside Johnson in “Black Adam.” In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hodge opened up about his mace combat scenes with the wrestler-turned-action-star. As it turns out, he was more afraid of hurting Johnson than anything else.
“My lasting memory is that I never hit him,” Hodge said. “That was all I cared about. I’m actually serious. Swinging around that mace, man … I grew up a fighter, and in terms of real fighting and stunt fighting, it’s all about understanding and knowing your distance. With real fighting, you need to know your distance and your opponent’s distance exactly, so that you know when to lock in, clock them, and get out. With stunt fighting, you need to know your distance so that you never touch the other person, but the mace required the full extension of my arm. So I had to deal with understanding a different length because the mace added a couple extra feet. And man, all I wanted to do was make it through the day without scratching that man’s face. Because if I scratched his face and we had to shut it down because of me? Yeah, that’s no bueno.”
In addition to being Johnson’s DC Universe debut, “Black Adam” is also notable for marking the return of Henry Cavill’s Superman. The cameo is likely to set up future showdowns between the two characters, but Hodge was completely unaware of it until he saw the film.
“They kept that all the way under wraps, and I didn’t know until maybe a day or two before the premiere,” he recently said. “And honestly, I dig that because it was a huge surprise for me, and I love it that we got to experience it together with the audience.”
“Black Adam” is now playing in theaters.
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